“Skaņu mežs” in Liepāja – from Japanese pop music to microtonal music
On July 2, 2027, Liepāja will host a special mini-edition of the experimental music festival “Skaņu mežs”, featuring musicians and sound artists from Latvia, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Norway, Germany, the United States, and Sweden. “Skaņu mežs” in Liepāja is being realized within the framework of the “Liepāja 2027” program. Venue - the former “Liepājas Metalurgs” site (Eksporta Street 3).
The leading print media outlet for experimental music, “The Wire Magazine”, has repeatedly called “Skaņu mežs” the largest avant-garde music festival in the Baltic States, and last year it also praised the festival’s audience, known for its wide-ranging interests - “there is nothing this audience cannot handle,” concluded critic Daniel Spicer.
“‘Skaņu mežs’ casts a wide and generous net over the most astonishing landscapes of contemporary music,” music journalist Tom Service said on BBC Radio 3.
The British music criticism website “The Quietus” called the festival this summer the most internationally recognized platform for Latvian experimental music.
“Skaņu mežs” looks at both long-unresolved and recently occurred changes in contemporary music, aiming to perceive them across the widest possible range of musical genres - from hip-hop, metal, and hyperpop to noise, free improvisation, and contemporary composition.
Throughout the concert evening, performances will be given by Tokyo alternative pop singer Hakushi Hasegawa, the microtonal music ensemble “Harmonic Space Orchestra”, Japanese free jazz icon Akira Sakata in collaboration with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, and British post-club culture electroacoustician Flora Yin Wong. Five more artists will be added to the event program over time.
The “Skaņu mežs” project is being implemented within the framework of the “Liepāja 2027” program, using funding allocated by the Ministry of Culture, the Liepāja state city, and the South Kurzeme and Kuldīga municipalities. The “Liepāja 2027” program is supported by the main partner in environmental education and sustainability, AS “CleanR Grupa”, the main partner in mobility and international communication, AS “airBaltic Corporation”, and the mobility partner, transport carrier SIA “Lux Express Latvia”.
